Labega, Badejo among three arrested for ‘embezzlement, theft and forgery’

May 31, 2016

PHILIPSBURG–Former Tourist Bureau head Regina Labega (56) and writer Fabian Badejo (65) were amongst three persons arrested on Monday based on “complaints” filed by the Finance Department head in November 2010 about “embezzlement in employment, theft and forgery,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release on Monday.

The third person arrested was E.A.I.F (36). The Prosecutor’s Office said the three arrested would be heard on the currently available research results. “This will probably take several days, given the size of the dossier,” it was stated in the release.
The National Detectives have been busy with a long-term investigation of the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau staff. In this regard the National Detectives conducted house searches at five different locations on October 15, 2015. This investigation, called Colade, is now almost completed.
“The long duration of the investigation is due to the fact that a lot of information had to be obtained from abroad and the analysis has taken much time. In addition, the National Detectives Department, in particular when the investigation started, had a very limited capacity and was constantly confronted with other big investigations,” the release said.
The case against a fourth suspect in the Colade investigation, Edward Dest (51), was already heard in court on March 25, 2015, and Dest was sentenced to one day in jail for “complicity in the deliberate misappropriation of money or monetary instruments as an official.”
The prosecution intends to present its investigation in court in the second half of this year.